For a decade, Vice magazine has pioneered a no-holds-barred approach to the counterculture. But now, with a TV channel and hard-hitting reportage from the frontline of the world’s trouble spots, it’s aiming to shock in a different way. Carl Wilkinson hears how the streetwise teen-zine finally grew up
The stars are in town. The Rolling Stones are staying over there, my driver says, pointing out of the window as we speed down Unter den Linden in central Berlin. And Penelope Cruz there. Each hotel is fronted by a gaggle of paparazzi sunning themselves on the pavement. It’s the Berlinale, the annual film festival, and I’m here to meet the founders of a countercultural magazine with designs on the television and movie industry.
Back in 1994, three friends in Montreal - Shane Smith, Suroosh Alvi and Gavin McInnes - bought out Voice of Montreal, a magazine funded by the Canadian government as part of a welfare programme to provide work and promote community service. After a fallout with the original publisher, they wrested control, dropped the ‘o’ (’for legal reasons’, Smith explains over a kebab) and Vice was born. (more…)
I’ve spent the past eight months editing a series of books which are published each month with the Observer newspaper and last month I took a day off to shoot a video for the band Mr Hudson & The Library for their song ‘Upon The Heath’ from their debut album A Tale of Two Cities. It was a fun day and you can see the results below…
Stratospheric house prices mean even the bottom rung of the property ladder is out of reach for many. Carl Wilkinson meets the couch surfers and warehouse guardians who’ve found novel ways to save their rent
Location, location, location goes the trite estate agent’s mantra. But just what would you be prepared to do for the right location? Take this advert for a London flat posted last month: ‘Excellent transport links, close to Archway tube (Northern line) and Holloway tube (Piccadilly line). Excellent bus routes, 15 mins from Central London.’ It’s a bargain, at just £75 per week. The catch? You sleep on the sofa.
The last time many of us would have fallen asleep on a sofa would have been in front of Newsnight before retiring upstairs to bed. However, for a new generation of ‘property poor’ the sofa is their bed. (more…)
